-This will be Phil Irwin's major league debut. Irwin has only pitched 27 AAA innings where he posted a 2.33 ERA and a 1.19 WHIP in five starts. His overall minor league numbers show a 3.00 ERA and a 1.10 WHIP in over 419 innings with a 5.12 SO/BB ratio.

-For a more in depth breakdown of Irwin take a look at what Tim has up over at [Pirates Prospects]. For real though, go read that.

-Latos is probably the Reds ace and they will need him to be one in order for the Reds to just grab a win out of the series. Last season he posted a 3.48 ERA and a 1.16 WHIP in 209.1 innings which are nearly identical to his career numbers.

-Last season against the Pirates he made three starts and struck out 21 batters and gave up only three runs and 11 hits, in all three games. He held Pirates hitters to a .167/.286/.227 in 77 plate appearances so he knows how to handle this lineup which is nearly identical to last season. No current Pirates player has more than 17 plate appearances against Latos since 2010 so obviously this is a huge sample size issue but Latos is a very good pitcher.